


Creb and the Clan, The Early Years

by TLWtlw



Category: Earth's Children - Jean M. Auel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27184340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TLWtlw/pseuds/TLWtlw
Summary: This will be written as Zoug telling Ayla and the rest of the clan his memories of the time that he is the only one old enough to remember. Think of it as bonus material or a missing scene from Journey to a New Home Part 2. Picking up after Zoug asks Ayla to train the youngsters in the use of the sling and he starts telling her some things about the past.
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Earth's Children belongs to Jean M. Auel.

Zoug continued to share stories of his younger days with Ayla and the rest of the clan. On this night he was telling of the day that Creb was born.

He started, "My friend Brov had just been appointed leader not too long before Creb was born even though he was still rather young. His man of hearth, the leader before him had been killed on a hunt a few days before.

Brov was very worried. His mate Oza was a full day into labor with her first child and so far there was no news good or bad. He had been mated before to my older sibling Iga. She had died in childbirth a full passing of the seasons before along with the daughter she gave birth to. Around the same time Oza had become a woman and it was decided that the two of them would be mated. But now he was afraid that she and her child would die as well.

I could tell that Brov was flinching every time he heard the screams of pain coming from his hearth. Finally after what seemed an eternity, his mother Ina came over and dropped to the ground in front of him. He tapped her shoulder. She did not give the customary sign of joy when she reported the child was a boy and she said he seemed deformed.

Brov first asked about Oza. Ina reported that she was very weak and losing a lot of blood and that's why her mother Uba could not leave her to make the report herself. Then he asked Ina to describe the child's deformities. She said his head had been too big. Once he was born the limbs on his right side were weak and un-moving. Brov asked Ina if the child could hold his head up. She said he could, but barely.

Brov knew that normally the child should be disposed of. But Oza could not do it herself. And Brov couldn't send their only other medicine woman out in the raging blizzard that was going on outside. It still might be treacherous for the older woman or any of the women to go out into it before the seven days was up.

He said he would examine the child and the Mogur Rom and I went with him. He touched the child and the child with his strong left hand, grasped Brov's finger. Brov could see there was something wrong with the limbs of the child's right side. However, he stated that if the child lived until his naming day he would be accepted".

Zoug went on to say, "My Ola and some of the other nursing women took pity on him and nursed him until Oza was stronger. On his naming day, Rom named him Creb".


	2. Chapter 2

Zoug continued his narrative, "As Creb grew it was seen he was an unusually bright child. Perhaps to make up for how his body was limited. His crippled right side limbs did not grow as the ones on the other side and twisted as well. He did learn to pull himself along when he was a baby by scooting or crawling using his left side limbs to propel himself and then he was eventually able to pull himself up with his good arm and leg using the cave wall as support.

Still he had to stay in the cave with other women looking after him if his mother was on a hunting trip and it was thought he would not be able to go to the next clan gathering when it was time for that.

When Creb was weaned at the usual age, Oza became pregnant again. Everyone hoped for a healthy male this time.

It was around this same time that an injured man of the Others appeared in our midst and collapsed. He was suffering from a broken arm where the bone was sticking out of the skin. He was also dehydrated and had a head injury. Uba treated his injuries and he eventually learned our language. His name was Tev. It puzzled us that he seemed to regard the women equal to the men.

Brov gave him the unmated woman Epa to care for his hearth and his needs. She and her mate had been from another cave and when he had died, since she had no children, she was traded from hearth to hearth. She grew quite fond of Tev as he treated her so kindly.

Also Tev made Creb a new walking staff when the one he had before had broken. He made one that was better and more comfortable than the one he had before. He called it a crutch. It was somewhat different from a normal walking staff and more comfortable for Creb to use.

It was around this time that Brov took all us men, Tev included on a major hunt that would last a few days. Oza was too far along with her second pregnancy to go. One thing that I recall about that trip with humor was the woman Uda was enticing Brov so he would relieve his needs with her and she wasn't being very subtle about it. I think she always hoped that Brov would take her as a second woman although she already had a mate of her own. He wasn't the best hunter and she felt the lesser status personally.

Shortly after the hunters and the women they took with them returned, Oza gave birth to a fine sturdy son. He was named Brun and given the totem Bison".


	3. Chapter 3

Zoug continued, "It was not long after Brun's birth that Tev decided to go back to his own people. We all wished he could have stayed since he helped us understand Others better. Epa was quite sad when he left, since she had with him the chance to be a mate to a kind man. And now she would go back to being traded from hearth to hearth. I understand now why he didn't take her with him from what Tev has told me since he came back to us with Ayla, Zar and the others.

Shortly after Tev had left was when Creb was attacked by the angry mother cave bear. No one knows for sure why he wandered off alone that day. He knew he shouldn't, a small boy not too far past his weaning year who was crippled. Creb confided in me after we were both old men why he had wandered off that day. There were two reasons. One was that with the birth of his brother, it made him feel even more like he would always be a burden and not have a normal life that others would. The second reason he told me was that he felt compelled to. And he thought that perhaps the spirits might have been at work in that reason.

I had actually tried to teach Creb how to use a sling with his strong left arm. It was quite difficult though. Oza and Uba had worked with him since he was an infant to keep his bad limbs exercised and they had improved although not much. For him to use a sling, he would have to try to put the stone in the cup of the sling with his weak hand while trying to balance his crutch and bad leg. And by that time a small predator on the attack would have already attacked if it was going to. A sling would not have helped him with the cave bear though.

He told his mother when he was able to after the attack that he had unwittingly stumbled on a cave bear cub and had startled it. The mother attacked. Crushing the lower part of his bad arm and then tearing out his left eye with a swipe of her paw.

I and some other men were with the women who were gathering when we heard his screams. I helped his mother Oza get him back to the cave. She and Uba worked through the night. There was no way they could save the lower part of his right arm so Oza was forced to amputate it. It was still a question if he would survive or not. The next morning the mogur Rom spoke to Brov and Oza and told them if Creb lived that he would be his acolyte. Rom said he had prayed and meditated on it all night and believed that being marked by the cave bear was a certain sign that it was the right thing to do".


	4. Chapter 4

Zoug continued his tale of Creb and the earlier years of the clan, "Creb's recovery from the bear attack was long and hard. Since the arm he had lost had been weak from birth, he already knew how to do many things especially communicating with one hand. I've always thought that Creb was more eloquent with one hand than many are with two. But still he had to learn to compensate.

But he was rather despondent when he first awoke after the attack and learn that he was now missing both part of his arm and an eye. Rom our Mogur sat and talked to him. He told him that it was a heavy price to pay but that the attack was a sure sign that Ursus wanted him to serve since He had sent one of his own kind to mark Creb. He also told Creb that even before the attack that he had observed him and saw his intelligence and had been considering taking him as an acolyte anyway.

One of the hardest things was that Creb could see how people looked at him after the attack. Especially the other children. But not my mate's daughter Uma. As I've said before, since Ola often nursed the two of them together, they grew up close. It was after the bear attack that Uma told Ola for the first time that she wanted to be Creb's mate when they were both old enough so she could always take care of him. I wish it could have been that way. I know Ola and I missed her when her mating was arranged to a young man from another clan when the next clan gathering came around. If Creb had already been a full Mogur at the time, but he was still just an acolyte and as such didn't qualify for a Mogur's portion yet".


	5. Chapter 5

Zoug picked up his story, "It was some time after Tev left and went back to his own people that it was found out that Epa was with child. It was a big surprise to all of us as she had never had a child before.

So that she would be mated when the child was born she was given as a second woman to Crev who was mated to Uba the older medicine woman. Creb's name was very similar to his grandmother's mate's name.

Another reason it was thought that would be best was Uba could keep a close eye on Epa's health since she was having a child so late in life.

We had some other new children before Epa gave birth. They were born before Tev had left. My mate Ola gave birth to Grod her first son. And the woman Uda gave birth to Ebra.

The day the child was born, Brov's mother Ina came and reported about the birth. She said the child was deformed but not in same way Creb had been. She had a bulging forehead and a bony knob under her mouth. She could not hold her head up. Of course we now know that meant she was mixed. But at the time it was just another deformity to us. Uba said later on she may have had some other health problems or weaknesses. Both Uba and Oza advised her to give the child back to Ursus before Brov ordered it. If the child had been a boy perhaps he wouldn't have ordered it. But we will never know. She disposed of the child".

Zoug looked over sympathetically at Mamut who had been listening to the story and who now hung his head in sadness.

Zoug continued, "A short while after that. Uba's mate Crev became ill very suddenly. He was nauseated, feverish and complaining of severe pain in his right side. Neither Uba nor Oza had encountered this sickness before. Eventually his pain went away but he didn't get better and he died.

Brov took in Uba and her son Norv who was very close to the time of his manhood hunt. When it came time for him to have his hunt it was already arranged that he would mate Aba when she became a woman. She was living at the hearth of Dorg and Ina.

Brov thought taking in Epa would overcrowd his hearth and she returned to being traded from hearth to hearth".


End file.
